Last Congress, with the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, Democrats put American families in control of their own health care and ended a system that put profits ahead of patients. And today, Americans are experiencing new health care freedoms. Prescription drugs and preventive care are now more affordable for America’s seniors, and young people and small businesses have access to more affordable health insurance.
View 90 authoritative fact sheets on the final legislation from House Committees and Leadership.
The Affordable Care Act will help slow the growth of health care costs, while ensuring Americans have access to quality, affordable health care. The law provides $40 billion in tax credits to help small businesses provide insurance to their employees. The law also includes a “Patients’ Bill of Rights,” which contains provisions that have already begun to end the worst insurance company abuses. Now, children with pre-existing conditions can no longer be discriminated against by insurance companies – a protection that extends to all Americans by 2014. Parents can now keep their children on their insurance plans up to age 26, and insurance companies are no longer allowed to put lifetime limits on coverage or drop people when they get sick. As reforms continue to take effect, insurance companies will also be prohibited from imposing arbitrary annual caps on coverage, and they will be required to spend at least 80% of your premium dollars on health care benefits – as opposed to advertising, CEO salaries or shareholder dividends.
While Democrats fought for these new freedoms for American families and small businesses, Republicans are trying to repeal these patient protections and put insurance companies back in control of health care – offering no alternate legislative plan to slow the growth of health care costs, stop insurance company abuses, ensure all Americans can access affordable health coverage, and reduce the deficit.
Democrats consistently fight to strengthen the Medicare program and the Affordable Care Act is yet another example of that. The law improves prevention benefits, providing seniors access to with a free annual wellness visit and ending co-insurance for preventive benefits. The law also makes prescription drugs more affordable for seniors. Today, any senior in the Medicare Part D coverage gap, known as the “donut hole,” will see a 50% discount on their brand name drugs – and that discount increases over time, expanding to also include generic drugs, until the donut hole is completely eliminated.
But the Republican budget repeals these benefits and ends Medicare, increasing health care costs for seniors by more than $6,000. Their budget also cuts Medicaid by almost $800 billion, jeopardizing access to and quality of health care for seniors, the disabled and children. Their plan has proved to be deeply unpopular with the American people, but Republicans have voted repeatedly for a budget that makes the wrong choices and attempts to balance the budget on the backs of the middle class and seniors.
In addition to the Affordable Care Act, Democrats are focused on other ways to improve health care for Americans. In February 2009, Democrats fought to enact the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization despite Republican opposition. The program currently provides health insurance for more than 7 million children through 2014, when the reform law will take full effect and children will have a variety of new options for coverage. In addition, Democrats passed the bipartisan Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which gives the Food and Drug Administration authority to better regulate tobacco products, including the authority to approve new products and regulate tobacco marketing, particularly to children.
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